Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Spent most of the day driving back from Rocky Harbour to St. John's. Took about 8hrs, including stops along the way. There are many moose warning signs on the island, and rightly so. We experienced about 5 different moose sightings over the last 10 days.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

We drove up the coast today, stopping at various points and taking in the sights. We spotted this fox at one place, and when he saw our car, he ran up to it and sat down...staring at us. Obviously (and sadly) someone must have - at one point in time - given this fox some food, and now he was looking for a handout. I did get some neat pics out of this encounter though! And all I had to do was roll down the window of the car and point my camera out!
Note: When I return home from vacation and have access to my regular photo editing software, I will try and clone out that white daisy that is right on top of the fox's head! I find it too distracting in this image.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

We did the 'Tablelands' trail today in Gros Morne National Park. The guide book said it should take an hour to complete, but with all the photography that we were doing....we were out there for 3hrs! (Enjoying every minute of it!). The rocks here are thought to originate from the earth's mantle, which was forced up during a plate collision several hundred million years ago!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Spent most of the day driving from Gander to Gros Morne National Park today. Only saw a tiny bit of the park as we drove through it to our cabin in Rocky Harbour...but what we did see was pretty spectacular!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Drove up to Twillingate today and explored the northern coast of central Newfoundland. We weren't expecting to see many icebergs this late in the year - but were thrilled when we spotted this one, so close (relatively) to the coast.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Spent a few hours at Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve today....photographing the thousands of nesting gannets (and other smaller birds) on "Bird Rock". It was such an awesome sight (to say nothing of the sound and smell!). As is common in this area, there was heavy fog....so even though our visibility was somewhat limited, the fog did add a certain ambience to our shots!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

After visiting Signal Hill in St. John's this morning, we drove along the Avalon Peninsula coast and headed towards St. Bride's. The Avalon Peninsula was named as one of the top coastal destinations by National Geographic Traveler last year...and I can now see why.

Monday, July 18, 2011

On our first day in Newfoundland, we went on a "Puffin and Whale" watch boat tour. It was both terrifying (haha) and exhilarating being out in the open sea with the choppy waves rocking the boat as much as they did. Saw quite a few whales as well as puffins, which was so cool!

The only souvenirs that we buy when we go on trips are Christmas ornaments to hang on the tree. If we cannot find an ornament with the name of the place we are visiting printed on it, then we will often just buy a simple keychain...and hang that on the Christmas tree...usually with the date written on it. It's nice to look back at all the different places we have visited over the years, as we decorate the tree.

Only had a few hours before we had to drive back home, so we visited Mount Royal, which overlooks the city, seen here in this panorama shot. On our drive out, we passed by St. Joseph's Oratory - a spectacular-looking Basilica. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit this place...so it's on our 'to-do' list for our next visit to Montreal!

Our only full day in Montreal was packed with fun activities! Visited the stunning Notre-Dame Basilica in the morning, and then spent the afternoon at the botanical gardens. Ended the day with a great fireworks show!

For the Canada Day long weekend, we drove up to Montreal and fully enjoyed this beautiful city. Spent some time in the historic 'Old Montreal' part of town, pictured here. In the evening, we caught some of the Montreal Jazz Festival's free outdoor concerts - which were fantastic!